I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance<\/a>,\u201d the Dutchman explained at the Hungaroring circuit ahead of this weekend\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s why I had nothing really to add, but I think it\u2019s time to basically stop all the rumours.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.\u201d Four-time world champion Verstappen\u2019s future became a subject of speculation after rival driver George Russell revealed his Mercedes team were talking to the Dutchman\u2019s management about his future plans.<\/p>\n
It emerged that there was a performance clause in Verstappen\u2019s contract that offered him a chance to leave Red Bull if he was not in the top three at the end of July.<\/p>\n
But that clause has now elapsed and he will stay with Red Bull next year, the first season following a sweeping change of technical regulations.<\/p>\n
Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 and a similar scrutiny of his contract is expected next year once it becomes clear which teams have adapted and progressed best under the new regulations.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has fallen 81 points behind series leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren into third place in the drivers\u2019 championship this year.<\/p>\n
Red Bull are in a state of flux, after sacking their team principal Christian Horner this month and replacing the Briton with Laurent Mekies, the boss of their \u2018B\u2019 team Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
Horner\u2019s departure will have pleased Verstappen\u2019s father Jos, who turned against the man who had led Red Bull from their launch in 2024 following last year\u2019s accusation by a woman colleague of \u201cinappropriate behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Englishman was twice cleared over the claims by the Formula One team\u2019s parent company, Red Bull GmbH.<\/p>\n
At the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend Max Verstappen insisted Horner\u2019s shock departure had no impact on his future plans.<\/p>\n
He said the well-publicised discord between his father and Horner was never a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can have a difference of opinion and I expect that to happen because if everyone agrees, there is a problem.\u201d On Thursday when asked about his future after next year he replied: \u201cIf you ask me that question next year, then yes, we\u2019ll have that speculation, but I never speak about it because I am more interested in working on performance – and that\u2019s why I never really talk about what is in my contract.\u201d Despite McLaren and their two drivers Piastri and Lando Norris dominating this season, he said he still retained hopes of gaining some success before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that the cars will be different next year, but there are still things that you can take out of this year on the engineering side of things and also implement for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you cannot just say \u2018Okay, we\u2019re not winning the championship this year, so we just write it off completely\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo-one really knows where they will be at next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Verstappen said it was time to \u201cstop all the rumours\u201d. \u201cI\u2019ve never really said anything about it because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[2620,64,63,33127,1199,33128,3875,33125,33126,825,20588,806,805,803,804,18501,33129,2120,18504,22295,85,13773,33124,2753],"class_list":["post-36637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-budapest","tag-christian-horner","tag-engineering-side","tag-george-russell","tag-inappropriate-behaviour","tag-jos","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-benz-ag","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-performance-clause","tag-quells-speculation","tag-red-bull-gmbh","tag-rival-driver","tag-series-leader","tag-sports","tag-team-principal","tag-woman-colleague","tag-world-champion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}